Weekly People Update – Shane Jones – ‘I’m more popular with Weekly women’

He lost the bid for the Labour leadership, but MP Shane Jones has won the heart of a former beauty queen.

In a September issue of the Weekly, he revealed details of a romance between him and Dot Pumipi, who acted as his manager during one of the country’s most colourful political campaigns.

Despite the fact that working together drew them closer, the Northland native admits he is yet to pop the question.

“Any sort of sudden announcement about our relationship is not on the immediate horizon,“ he informs us.

During his bid to lead the Labour party, a battle that he lost to colleague David Cunliffe, Shane, who is described by some as a “jovial chauvinist”, tried to silence his harshest critics by using this very magazine as political ammunition.

He said he didn’t want to appeal to feminists, but the females who read the Weekly.

Shane, who is preparing for next year’s general election, says appearing in the Weekly has broadened his appeal with women.

“Life has changed since I appeared in the article, which means we cannot underestimate the magazine’s reach. The feedback continues to go on and on.

“I was recently in Dunedin and visited an isolated part of the South. People still say they saw me in the Weekly and that Dot and I make a really great couple.”